All you need is people with good judgment in other parts of their lives who care about you and will give you their honest opinion with no strings attached. The last point is crucial. All things being equal, the validation that matters most is the kind that comes with no agenda."

Tharp also quotes the great director Billy Wilder: "If I like something, I am lucky enough, fool enough, or smart enough to believe that other people are going to like it too."

"As we mature," Tharp writes, "we need to build criticism into the working process, as we do failure."